Certain Chinese companies are dumping hardwood plywood into the United States at less than fair value and will receive anti-dumping margins between 57.36–114.72 percent, according to a preliminary determination announced by the U.S. Commerce Department June 19.
Certain Chinese companies are dumping hardwood plywood into the United States at less than fair value and will receive anti-dumping margins between 57.36–114.72 percent, according to a preliminary determination announced by the U.S. Commerce Department June 19.
Shandong Dong Dongfang Wood Co. Ltd. will preliminarily receive an anti-dumping margin of 114.72 percent, as will three other companies that failed to provide responses to supplemental questionnaires that would establish their eligibility for a separate rate. A margin of 57.36 percent was set for Chinese companies eligible for a separate rate. One of the mandatory respondents, Linyi Chengen Import and Export Co. Ltd., was determined not to be dumping and was not given an antidumping margin.
The Commerce Department made its preliminary determination after investigating plywood hardwood imported from China between April 1–Sept. 30, 2016. The investigation was triggered by an antidumping duty petition filed Nov. 16 by the Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood.
"This announcement is another strong win for the hardwood plywood industry,” said Kip Howlett, president of the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, in a statement. “The jobs of thousands of American workers are on the line, and this sends a signal to China that we will not tolerate their unfair trade practices.”
The American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood came out against the Commerce Department’s findings in a statement.
“The high duties announced today have no connection to reality and will be devastating to the more than 100,000 American jobs that rely on hardwood plywood from both the U.S. and China,” said AAHP Chairman Greg Simon. “The only company for which DOC calculated an antidumping margin was found to have an antidumping rate of zero, meaning the company was not dumping, wholly refuting the petitioners’ claims. DOC averaged that zero together with another company that failed to respond to derive the fictitious 57.36 percent applied to over a hundred fully cooperating exporters and plywood mills.”
